The Market House, Still Empty Dreams?
When doing some housekeeping on my blog (consolidating Vox and Blogger versions to WordPress), I noticed something.
Over 5 years ago, my second post ever was about the empty dreams of the Annapolis Market House.
How sad that all these years later, the historical site still is being debated. After all this time, it’s future is still unclear. Is there any excuse for that?
Who was one of the go-to guys in deciding the fate of the Market House? Oh, yeah, Judd Legum. As my blogging colleague Brian Griffiths noted, his philosophy of what the Market House should be leaves much to be desired. Another reason not to let him get anywhere near the State House this November.
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Oh, it gets worse.
Now the “Powers That Be” want to mess-up the rest of the City Dock area. It is not enough to have evicted private businesses from the Market House , then installed inadequate air conditioning to hurt the new tenants. It is not enough to compete with City Dock area businesses in a building where they do not intend to make a profit. Now they have to choke-off existing Dock-area businesses from their customers.
In an ill-advised attempt to make the area more people-friendly, they propose cutting the parking in the area, making more areas for walking, and for more businesses. What is the matter, is there an over-abundance of parking spaces? Are all the downtown storefronts rented out, with people clamoring to move their businesses there? I didn’t realize the economy was so thriving, but the feds do claim the recession is over. I know many businesses didn’t get the memo.
While a park-like atmosphere may be nice to have, isn’t that what Susan Campell Park did years ago, when we lost that parking area? I remember when you could drive up to the end of the Dock. Now, oh wise ones, where are the people going to park who you want to partake of your new businesses, of your Sailing Hall of Fame, etc. While it is nice to have residents partake of discussions about the future of the area, I doubt there are enough residents to make the existing businesses, let alone the new ones you want to bring in, profitable.
That means that out-of-towners, tourists and workers, need to park before they can walk the area. There are plenty of places to walk and enjoy the City Dock, and the boat traffic in Ego Alley isn’t the only traffic worth watching. It can be interesting to watch the car & motorcycle traffic around City Dock while you munch on that Storm Brothers ice cream cone. Boaters aren’t the only ones who like people to see their vehicles. You can’t see them in a parking garage blocks away, and you can’t get there to see any of this if you have to park far either.
What do these people not understand about business (everything?)? Businesses need customers & employees, and they in-turn need convenient places to park! What they don’t need is the Annapolis government getting in the way of this thing called “profit”. Sorry, Judd, but that is not a dirty word!
Please don’t let me have to blog in 2015 about the Market House still being a bust, and the failure of the whole City Dock area.
